It’s late on a Friday afternoon. Lower chapel is screaming with the sound of eight guitars, two drummers, a ukulele, a piano and a host of voices.

Now it’s a Tuesday evening in a dorm room in Andrews Hall. The sounds of four guitars, a keyboard and a djembe fill the hallway.

Now it’s a Saturday morning. A crowd of people all holding instruments circles the piano in the student center, playing and singing.

All across campus two things happen regularly: friends get together and music is made.

Music is an art form. For many it is a lifestyle. There are plenty of people at this very university studying music to make a career out of it.

It can change moods and empower people. It is diverse and something that just about every person can participate in, in some way or another.

Whether it is rap music, folk rock, classical, or Tibetan throat singing, there is a genre for just about everyone in the world.

“We have the capacity to create it,” alum Conner Darsee, who plays the guitar, said.

He appeared at Ashland’s acoustic cafes and often played music with friends when he lived on campus.

The concept that sits at the heart and the power of music is that everyone has access to it and it is something that everyone can join into and help create.

When a person creates something there is a certain ownership that makes it more meaningful. People can do that with music.

Music can bring people together, quite literally. It gathers thousands of people at a time into stadiums to hear booming speakers. It also brings people into small groups to play music together.

That is what happens on this campus on a regular basis.

People play in dorms, in the chapel, on the quad, in the student center, at acoustic cafes and just about everywhere else.

“It’s fun participating in the same activity,” Darsee said. “It’s kind of communal, which is really good. People are contributing to your creative process and you are contributing to their creative process.”

Music builds community at AU. It brings people together in all sorts of settings and allows them to share something.

Playing and sharing music together is also vastly important because it brings comfort. It is not about performing for the other musicians in the room. It is about forgetting stress and just playing music with some good friends.

“It’s a great way to de-stress with friends,” senior Joe Griffith said. Griffith is a guitarist, pianist and singer who frequents the stage at The Well on Thursday nights and regularly has people get together to play music in small groups. He is also a participant at some of the acoustic cafes on campus.

Music is a fun way to connect with people on this campus. When there is a shared love for a genre or an instrument between two or more people, they can form a strong bond and begin creating art together.

“You can really learn a lot about people when you play music with them,” Griffith said.

A big part of this life is finding enjoyment and sharing that with other people. Music can be that thing that gives purpose, entertainment and joy to much of life.

It is also something that you can share with others in the world. You can find enjoyment in music and share it with other people here on this campus.

If you seek it out you will find it, because there are countless musicians at this university.

If you do not know how to play an instrument, most of these musicians are willing to have you come and sing with them and in time teach you how to play as well.

That is the beauty of it; you do not have to be technically sound to just enjoy the music with some good friends.